Superhero RPG?

[Memnoch3434]

Do you guys know of any superhero type RPG's? I am really looking for something that is relatively easy to pick up and play with not too complex rules for my playgroup.

 

[Animus]

You might try:

Icons Superpowered Roleplaying.

BASH! Ultimate Edition.

Heart & Souls.

You can try Mutants and Masterminds but it may not be what you personally are looking for, based on your criteria.

 

[JamesonCourage]

If you have d20 Experience, I'd suggest Mutants and Masterminds. It's pretty amazing for my group. Of course, preferences will differ, but it's pretty simple if you're used to d20 (much more simple than, say, D&D is), and a lot of fun (for my group).

Anyways, just my two cents. Play what you like

 

[Mallus]

My group had a lot of fun with Mutants and Masterminds 2nd ed. It offers a great balance between flexibility, detail, and ease-of-play.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

HERO is kind of my gold standard. I have yet to encounter a PC concept I couldn't model in that game.

It IS complex, but most of its complexity lies in character creation. After you slog through that, 95% of what you need to run your PC will be on your character sheet.

That all said, Mutants & Masterminds delivers about 90% of the flexibility of the HERO system, and its design is rooted in the D20 system with which so many are familiar. If you can grasp D&D or D20 Modern, M&M will be easy to pick up.

 

[Doug McCrae]

HERO System and Mutants & Masterminds are both complex, the former more so than the latter. M&M's combat, and general play, is straightforward most of the time, while its char creation is in depth.

I think Icons or Bash are more what you are looking for. Icons has a random char gen system specifically geared for fast startup play such as oneoff sessions.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If you have d20 Experience, I'd suggest Mutants and Masterminds. It's pretty amazing for my group. Of course, preferences will differ, but it's pretty simple if you're used to d20 (much more simple than, say, D&D is), and a lot of fun (for my group).

Anyways, just my two cents. Play what you like

My 3E group found character creation WAY too fiddly and I had a mass rebellion. The fact that the 2nd edition had a book just devoted to making character creation easier suggests that this is not an uncommon reaction.

 

[pawsplay]

Do you guys know of any superhero type RPG's? I am really looking for something that is relatively easy to pick up and play with not too complex rules for my playgroup.

Very easy:
Icons
BASH

Still pretty easy:
D6 Supers
Necessary Evil (Savage Worlds)
Silver Age Sentinels (Tri-Stat version)

Not precisely easy but teachable and not too scary:
Mutants & Masterminds 3e
Hero System (Champions)
GURPS Supers

Not easy:
Wild Talents

 

[JamesonCourage]

Well, it's going to vary from group to group, but my group took to it very easily, and they're far from an optimizing, rules lawyer type group. They're decent at dealing with mechanical elements, but none of them visit any RPG boards, for example. They don't look for ways to break systems, or really know any. Most of them are blissfully unaware of the ills that plague those who hate different editions or games.

At any rate, Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition was really easy for us to pick up and use. The game is much simpler to play than 3.X in my opinion (which is similar to it in scope mechanically), while still presenting many more potential character concepts.

However, I am glad you piped in. Your experience is something that the original poster should consider just as much as mine (in my opinion).

As always, play what you like

 

[Relique du Madde]

My 3E group found character creation WAY too fiddly and I had a mass rebellion. The fact that the 2nd edition had a book just devoted to making character creation easier suggests that this is not an uncommon reaction.

Not really. Instant Superheroes was really akin to having a book of sample characters, so it didn't make character creation easier, it just sped it up to the point where all you have to do is pick and choose between various "character archetypes."

If Instant Heroes was made to make character creation easier they would have listed point totals for each power/array (as done in MM3e) so that you could easily scale down/up characters to various power levels or create hodgepodge characters.

A side note, MM3e was simplified and also has a random character generator (Part of the GM kit).

didn't make creating characters easier since there was no individual point costs for powers listed. All it did was speed up character creation since

HOWEVER, that said MM3e DOES have a randomized character generator